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Long-time Boone physician recognized for service

Dr. Wayne E. Rouse, second from left, was recognized by the Boone County Board of Supervisors for his years of service on the Boone County Board of Health. Pictured with Rouse, left to right, are board members Chet Hollingshead, Steve Duffy and Tom Foster. Photo by Whitney Sager

By Whitney Sager

Editor

Countless years of service and dedication to the community have not gone unnoticed for one of Boone’s long-time residents.

Dr. Wayne E. Rouse was recognized by the Boone County Board of Supervisors Wednesday morning for his years of service on the Boone County Board of Health. Rouse has served on the board for 29 years, 28 of which were spent as chairman of the board. He has decided it is time to retire from the board and will pass on his duties to Dr. Brian Mehlhaus, who will serve through 2015.

“It’s time to pass it on to someone younger,” Rouse said.

A lifetime of service

After graduating from the University of Iowa in 1961 with a medical degree, Rouse served in the Navy as a senior medical officer from 1962-1964. He worked at a 27-bed hospital on Midway Island alongside a team of fellow Navy doctors and nurses. Together, they were responsible for all the people on the island, as well as those positioned on ships on the sea. One of his most memorable moments from serving on the island, he said, was when he had to treat a Japanese fisherman who had three fingers bitten off by a shark.

In 1964, Rouse moved to Boone to begin practicing at Boone County Hospital. He worked with long-time physicians Dr. Wicks and Dr. Longworth, both of whom Rouse said were mentors to him and helped him become established as a physician in town.

After nearly 40 years of caring for people “from the cradle to the grave,” Rouse retired from the hospital in 2001. He said people will continue to stop and talk to him if they see him at the grocery store or wave at him when they see him out and about.

“These people were not only patients, but friends,” Rouse said. “That relationship does not stop just because you’re retired.”

Though he may have retired from the hospital, his involvement in various community organizations only continued.

In addition to his position on the board of health, Rouse serves on the Des Moines Area Community College Boone Campus Foundation, an organization he joined in 1975. In 1995, he joined the DMACC Board of Directors. He also serves on three different committees at his church. Rouse plans on continuing to serve on all those committees, with the exception of the board of health, as long as he can.

When asked why he has devoted so much of his time to those organizations throughout the years, Rouse said it has been his way of giving back.

“I’ve always felt when you make a living in a town, you need to give back to the community in some way,” Rouse said.

He and his wife, Joyce, of 53 years have two children - David Rouse, who is an optometrist in Florida, and Diana Byriel, who is a fifth grade teacher at Boone Middle School - and three grandchildren.